Go Ahead Honey It’s Gluten Free! : National Blonde Brownie Day

January has so many great days dedicated to fantastic food. January 4th is National Spaghetti Day, the 11th is Milk Day and just two days ago was National Cheese Lovers Day. Can you imagine a whole day dedicated to cheese? I’d have a bit of a tummy-ache due to a slight lactose intolerance, but it would be glorious nonetheless.Needless to say, I picked my day on the calendar and became inspired once more. Today, my friends, is National Blonde Brownie Day. I can’t tell you how many times I go to restaurants where they have these amazing looking blondies on their dessert menus, usually with warm caramel and some whipped cream. Though I’ve gotten over my food-envy, I’m always on the alert for foods that I realize I miss quite a bit so I can recreate them in a new, gluten-free way.Besides being National Blonde Brownie Day, today is also the day I move back to Rider University for my final semester as an undergraduate student. And tonight, we’re celebrating a certain birthday. So what better way to spend such a day than sharing and eating the gluten-free blondies I made just yesterday? After moving back into the dorm and unpacking everything, blondies are the perfect way to start off the semester. And the recipe is so easy that it’s probable that we’ll be enjoying plenty of blondies throughout this upcoming semester.

2 cups gluten-free all purpose flour (I still use the Ahern Mix)

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 eggs

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 packed brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Mix your eggs, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.Add in your dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) and mix together to make a dough.Here’s where we can vary. Yesterday, I decided to add in chocolate chips because I have quite the sweet tooth. These would be good without any additions, but I’ve also been toying around with the idea of adding cashews. Play around with it and find what you like. So mix in whatever you’d like to add to your blondies.Place mixture into an 8×8 baking pan.Bake in the oven at 350° F for twenty-five minutes or until the edges brown.Let them cool, and there you have it! Cut them into squares and serve. With chocolate chips, these warm treats are very sweet (though I do think I might have added too many chocolate chips this time around). Even when they cool down, they remain soft and gooey in the middle while the top stays nice and crispy.A word to the wise, however…don’t leave these lovely treats in the pan too long or you’ll have some trouble getting them out. It was a struggle, but we managed to do so without mangling them too much. We wrapped them so they would be ready for today’s birthday shenanigans.

National Blonde Brownie Day might just have to be my favorite food holiday (though it has pretty tough competition with National Cheese Lovers Day), especially when I get to bring food with me back to Rider to share with the ladies.I wish all of you a happy National Blonde Brownie Day.